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June 26, 2009

Carrot-Raisin Salad and Other Atrocities

If you are like most people, you frequently combine different foods together in one meal. You don't generally, for example, have just have a big plate of spinach for dinner. Or eat a platter of lamb chops and nothing else.

In fact, if you are clever and industrious, you may even chop up numerous ingredients using a "recipe" and then combine them all into a single dish! This is called cooking.

Yet so often, we read nutritional studies that tell us all about how a particular food is good or bad for us as though we ate it in isolation. As it turns out, nutrition is a lot more complicated than that.

Some nutrients work synergistically, so you get way more nutritional bang for your buck from combining them. Olive oil and tomatoes? Peanut butter and whole wheat bread? Berries and green tea? These friendly foods get along really well and they accomplish way more working together than when they're all by themselves.

On the other hand, other foods don't get along at all, and act antagonistically. They behave just like Crabby when she's PMS and hasn't yet had her morning coffee. One food tries to offer up a nutritional benefit but the other food says, "screw that, I'm gonna interfere with it just because I can!" I think green tea and milk may be one of those combos, though the evidence goes back and forth on that. (And sometimes foods are so grumpy they even fight with themselves. Like, for example, the oxalic acid in spinach keeps you from absorbing calcium... which is one of the nutrients you get from spinach!)So there's a great post over at Arena Fitness about food synergy, and I thought, well, wouldn't it be nice to copy their post and be done for the day do a round up of nutritional food synergies and antagonisms so that people can know what they should or shouldn't be eating together?

But then when I looked into it further, it all got terribly arcane and tedious. And a lot of foods just end up complimenting themselves, (I hate it when foods get so narcissistic like that) like apple skins and apples, so the message you end up with is "don't peel stuff," which you already knew anyway.

Plus, I ended up realizing that it's hard enough to eat a healthy balanced diet with a variety of different whole foods. If I have to start obsessing about whether I should have my spaghetti marinara with spinach or broccoli for optimal results... I might get so fed up that I'd figure, the hell with it, I'll have a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke! Which is a much simpler meal because there's no guessing; you know it's gonna be bad for you.

However, for those of you who are better able to handle nutritional complexity and would to know more about the topic, the food synergy post has some highlights and also some helpful additional links (like this one at Web Md and this one at Bliss Tree.)

I'm with you on the olives/olive oil thing. I also happen to love garlic and onions in a great number of dishes but don't ever try to feed me potato chips, crackers or any kind of cheese which is flavoured with either of them.. blech!

I just want to clear up that cooking or blanching spinach inactivates the oxalic acid, so calcium can be easily absorbed.

I love how nature puts the right things together. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, so can only be absorbed in the presence of fats. The foods where they occur naturally also contain fats... even the leafy greens and broccoli. This is why refining food is such a stupid move... we're damaging the food!

I'm going to check out that article now... I've been interested in food combining for a while.

I can't eat sweetened vegetables... like candied yams. I like them plain. And while I love fruit, I don't like it in food.

We seem to have similar tastes in food combinations! Although, I don't mind carrot-raisin salad or nuts in anything.

In regard to tomatoes, though, I hate them in salad, bruscetta, chunky salsa or chunky tomato sauce. But I'll eat smooth tomato sauce, tomato soup, smooth salsa, and even the occasional tomato on a sandwich.

I also love cherries and peaches but hate cherry pie or peach cobbler.

I'm with Hanlie on the candied yam. I can barely write that without my stomach turning. Why? Why are these atrocities committed?I can't think of anything else right now. The horrors of candied yam have wiped everything else from my brain.

I do not enjoy cooked peppers or sun-dried tomatoes, although I will enthusiastically eat them raw. I also hate sweetened yams or beans- they might take my Massachusetts citizenship away for this, but I think Boston Baked Beans are a sacrilege.

Also, I hate donuts. I love pastry and I used to make it for a living, but donuts are yucky.

My thing is more textures than flavours (although I hate tomato juice or soup, love real tomatoes not those winter grocery store one). The texture that bothers me the most is jello salad, jello is bad enough on its one but when chunks are in it as well..... I also cannot drink juice with pulp.

Bananas. I will, on occaision, peel and eat a banana. Or my favorite breakfast restaurant serves a waffle with strawberries & sliced bananas on top and that is ok. But I do not like anything with bananas mixed in, or anything banana flavored - smoothies with bananas, banana muffins, banana yogurt = yuck.

I'm with you on the tomato soup and the carrot-raisin salad (good thing I only have coffee in my stomach!) but I will drink tomato juice. Don't like tomatoes in a salad, but put them in a sandwich with some bacon and I'm there!

And for God's sake, don't put raisins in my oatmeal cookies!

There are more, but I'm trying not to take over your comment section!:)

My kids drive my wife and I crazy with this stuff. One will not eat ham if it's baked or on the grill, but her favorite sandwich in school was a hot ham and cheese. The next one has a problem with onions. If you put one in a salad, or even breath in his direction with onion on your breath, he just about gags, but give him a fist full of fried onion rings he’ll wolf them down and come back looking for more. Then I also have an Irish child that doesn’t like corned beef but that’s a whole genetic switched at birth thing I think is going on.

tomatos.. ugh. I like tomato soup, smooth or mostly smooth pasta sauce, and tini tiny bits in a casserole.. but juice, whole, or big pieces in any form? hell no! :)

you guys made me think of the pearled onions my mom made us eat when we were little. couldn't leave the table until the 2 we were given were gone. an hr or 2 after dinner, we both were still at the table!

And its so funny how personal they are. Half the comments I'm going, "yeah, I totally hate that too!" And the other half I'm going, "what? How could you not like that?"

And thanks Hanlie, for the spinach clarification!

Thunderstorms? Computers... Hmm, I did read something about that somewhere... Yes, Lillian's mom, you're supposed to stay off the computer! Not that i always do... I just figure if I type REALLY FAST somehow it wont get me. Duh.

I'm so with you on the Olive/Olive Oil thing (and my husband thinks I'm nuts). I'm not a big fan of nuts in general, but they *definitely* don't belong in my baked goods...unless their in flour form (almond flour, walnut flour, etc.). *shrugs*

I've also found a number of combinations I thought I disliked were just due to recipes. Like those candied yams. When I made my own and started tinkering with the recipe I found it could be quite yummy (first step - reduce all the sugars by half).

I'm sooooo glad someone else hates celery. My boyfriend thinks I'm totally nuts...."it doesn't taste like anything" he claims. It does too, it taste like yuck. And even grosser, cream of celery soup, most awful thing ever! But celery in vegetable soup, okay, and if I'm fair, I can eat celery chopped up in tuna. Hmmm.

I can only eat bananas by themselves, and only if they are in that very small window of ripeness where there is little-to-no green left but before they start going past that just-barely-ripe moment. I can't stand banana-flavored anything.

And it's the same with raisins. I used to eat them by the handfuls when I was little, not so much any more. But I can't stand them in cakes or cookies. I mean you're eating along enjoying your caky thing and suddenly there's a slimy raisin. Except I love the family pecan cake, even though it's loaded with them. Go figure.

I always thought I hated olives until I went to Morocco, and loved some of them. Then it occurred to me that I'd only ever tried the yucky green ones with pimentos, or the crappy black olives on pizza (still don't like those kinds of olives).

Also, have you tried to cook celery? Celery is comparable to broccoli for me: don't care for it raw, but cooked, it's fine.

Oh, and I can't stand sprouts, with anything. I know they're supposed to be good for me, but just can't do them.

Carrot raisin salad reminds me of the nursing home I used to work in. Maybe it's a taste acquired with old age? I can't stand olives alone, but place them in proximity to artichokes, preferably on a pizza and I don't so much mind.

I hate the consistency of any kind of nuts, regardless of how small you chop them (my grandma tried that, suspended in Jell-o, no less--ack), but I like peanut butter. My boyfriend is just the opposite, hates PB, but loves nuts. (But he does eat Nutella, which is just German PBmade from hazelnuts with some chocolate flavoring. Hypocrite.)

I cannot do meat with fruit sauces. I never got why that would even sound like a good idea. Cranberry sauce I happily eat as "dessert" after my turkey dinner, however.

I like fruit salad, but cannot put fruit in a regular green/veggie salad. Waldorf salad is a nightmare for me -fruit AND nuts in a green salad, ugh!

I eat each thing on my plate until it's gone, then move on to the next thing, usually in the order of how quickly it cools. So peas before baked potato, as the latter stays hot longer. I also don't like the food touching on the plate, or sauces or juice getting all over the plate and contaminating other food items. I'll still eat the food if it happens, but I take preventative measures to avoid it. For example, I set my knife under my plate to keep one side higher, thus coralling the sauce or melted butter or whatever on the one side. (My grandpa made me aware early that "it all gets mixed together in your stomach," but my taste buds voted to stick with my tried and true method. If it were socially acceptable, I'd use those kiddie plates with separate sections.)

On the other hand, my bf carefully puts a bit of everything on the plate on each forkful. He plans it so the last forkful has exactly a small bit of everything on it. (I steal stuff off his plate just to mess with him...heh heh.)

Salt and vinegar chips smell like feet to me, and dry salami smells like armpits.

I have a friend who doesn't like the consistency of toothpaste. She nearly gags when brushing her teeth. So I guess it could be worse...at least I can brush my teeth without gagging (which was necessary to get rid of all those ground nuts my grandma fed me in the nasty red Jell-O)!

Hilarious article! I'm generally pretty adventurous when it comes to eating different kinds of foods in combination with each other, but I have to admit ... that photo of the carrot/raisin salad made me queasy.It looks like it's ready to be pureed and eventually packed into baby food jars!

I'm not a fan of olives either but religiously use olive oil in everything. I have been trying to be less bratty and adding olives to dishes here 'n there and haven't found them totally disgusting. I think it's their texture for me so if I can hide that I can deal.

Peanut butter on celery is awesome and is one of my favorite snacks.

I cannot eat cooked spinach but most of my salads consist of raw spinach. It just has more flavor and texture than icky lettuce.

I hate peas but will chow down a plateful of mac 'n cheese with peas and tuna in it like there's no tomorrow. I never realized how gross it sounded til I wrote it out but it's a major comfort food for me.

I LOVE THIS POST! I am exactly with you on all of your analomies, except that I can get some celery down with really good dip, or if it's chopped up in a roux. :) I'll top your Coconut entry- Coconut in candy, cakes= nasty & chewy; cococnut in my pina colada = HEAVEN! Btw, that picture of carrot salad makes me want to vomit.

Okay, listen. DO NOT put mayonnaise in it!! THAT is the atrocity. But grate some sweet, fresh carrots, add some nice golden raisins and some crushed pineapple and pineapple juice?? Heavenly! You can add pineapple chunks, apple chunks, a bit of shredded coconut, some chopped nuts if you like.... but *just* the pineapple juice for dressing. NO MAYO!

And Crabby, have you tried celery dipped in dark chocolate? Fabulous!!!

AWESOME POST! Love your fancy schmancy coined term -- you should get a trade mark on it ;) I do not like cookies or cakes with fruit in them. I *love* fruit alone, but if I am going to have a cookie or slice of cake, the only fruit I want even close to it is a high fructose corn syrup pseudo-strawberry sauce or something. I'm just sayin'...Also don't like tomatoes raw, but love tomato sauce! Love carrots raw and cooked, but YUCK as a juice. Oh, this topic is too fun!

The creamed onion thing made me laugh. I thought of them yesterday afternoon!Like the previous poster we had the same rule, you had to stay at the table until you had eaten your meal. There were some pretty long nights at my house.I am truly not a fussy eater but there are just somw things that don't work. My mother used to make this thing to use up leftover turkey - it was turkey, celery, bread crumbs, almonds, and onions held together with mayonaise and baked in muffin cups. Absolutely awful! Luckily that only showed up when we were down to little bits of turkey!

The only combination I can think of is steak and kidney, but it's not the steaks fault. It's just that kidney (and heart, tripe, liver etc) and all the things that TK mentioned are awful in the first place! That and I can't do crushed garlic rolled into a ball and coated with either butter or nutella.

One of my favourite food combos that I'm reasonably sure isn't good for me are cheese whiz and mayonnaise sandwiches. Though I usually make them on whole wheat bread. And nowadays mostly use no-fat salad dressing instead of mayo. (The trick there, of course, is to use extra dressing to up the flavour quotient a tad.)

Lyn is so right on the carrot and raisin salad- its the mayo that's wrong! I have not tried pineapple juice) but its good with OJ too (freshly squeezed if possible) or lemon juice and a LITTLE good olive oil

Yep, carrot-raisin salad makes me wanna urp. My mother-in-law makes it with apple cider vinegar instead of mayo and that's just as bad. Here, let's have something that tastes the same going down as it will coming back up ...

I think the only food aversions I have are to organ meats (I just can't see the point of eating a filtering organ, like kidneys or liver) and things flavored with asafoetida. My brother-in-law is Indian and even *he* says asafoetida tastes like old socks.

Pretty much anything else I'll eat. I'm not crazy about some things (very ripe bananas, candied yams, honey mustard dressing), but I can stand 'em. My mom used to feed me everything from Danish rice pudding to little dried fish with the heads still on from the Chinese grocery, so it's her fault.

I cannot mix fruit with anything. I will eat fruit, drink fruit juice, etc, but if it's mixed with something like bread, cake, chocolate, a smoothie, or even raisins in a couscous, i...just...can't. And it works the other way around as well- if something has even a hint of fruit in it, i won't eat it. I cry when i see raspberry coulis on cheesecake.

The only combination I can think of is steak and kidney, but it's not the steaks fault. It's just that kidney (and heart, tripe, liver etc) and all the things that TK mentioned are awful in the first place! That and I can't do crushed garlic rolled into a ball and coated with either butter or nutella.